Tobias Liu, Contributing Photographer

Whales don’t often swim across the back wall of the stage in Morse Recital Hall. The majestic creatures are known for their songs, but not nearly as much as opera superstar Renée Fleming — christened “the people’s diva” — who stood at center stage singing while a National Geographic film showcased leaping whales behind her.

On Friday evening, before a sold-out crowd, Fleming performed a recital with Yale Opera director Gerald Martin Moore in Morse Recital Hall as part of a residency program created by the Schwarzman Center and the School of Music. 

On Saturday, Fleming gave a public masterclass with School of Music vocal students — then led a public “Music and Mind” forum with Yale professors Laurie Santos and AZA Allsop.

One of this generation’s most celebrated singers, Fleming’s many accolades include five Grammy awards, the U.S. National Medal of Arts and a Kennedy Center honor for lifetime artistic achievement. She is the first classical artist ever to sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl, and she has performed everywhere, from Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

She received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Yale in 2020 and has served as a member of the Schwarzman Center Advisory Board since 2019.

“Her unmatched versatility, musicality and ability to infuse the arts into other areas of scholarship and research serve as an inspiration for members of our community who are bringing multiple disciplines together to enrich lives and solve pressing global challenges,” said University President Peter Salovey, who attended the recital. “Her leadership and active engagement with the Schwarzman Center and School of Music — and Yale more broadly — provide exceptional learning opportunities for students.”

In the recital, Fleming performed a program based on her album, “Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene,” which won a Grammy in 2023 for the best classical solo vocal album. The anthology was a collaboration with National Geographic, which created films for each of the songs.

The album, which is mostly art song, is “rather esoteric,” Fleming said, so for the performance, she added in songs from the Lord of the Rings — her voice is the original soundtrack for the movies — and popular Icelandic singer Björk.

Other highlights include her performance of Puccini’s “O mio babbino caro” — one of those pieces of music, akin to songs like “Amazing Grace,” that seem to always be able to transcend boundaries and reach people, she said.

At the end of the performance, after a standing ovation, Fleming and Moore performed Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” as an encore, inviting the audience to sing the choruses with her — a “unanimously captivating performance,” said Sandy Sharis MUS ’24.

The next morning, Fleming returned to Morse Recital Hall to give a public masterclass to four students from the opera program at the School of Music. 

Moore, who has served as director for Yale Opera since 2020, said that Fleming’s status as a public figure allows her to impart unique wisdom and inspiration on students.

“You’re in the presence of someone who has embraced all aspects of singing and show business, someone who has been in the industry for such a long time and is still at the height of her [singing] powers,” Moore said. “I think it is very inspiring for young singers to see and realize that even superstars like that still can get nervous, still have to look after their voice, still have to check in — she’s had this longevity for a reason.”

Moore began working with Fleming 25 years ago: Fleming sponsored his green card and visa when Moore moved to the U.S. He is still amazed by her work ethic and energy — he has “never seen an empty space in her calendar,” he observed.

On Saturday evening, Fleming hosted a public forum in Commons on the interaction of neuroscience, the arts, music and mental health with Laurie Santos, a Yale psychology professor who formerly taught one of the most popular courses at the university, and AZA Allsop, an assistant professor at the Yale psychiatry department. The three have more in common than meets the eye.

Beyond music, Fleming, who was recently named World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health, is a leading advocate for connections between the arts and health. Her recent work at the intersection of the arts and sciences include supporting the NIH Music-Based Intervention Toolkit, which seeks to use music as a non-invasive therapeutic avenue to brain disorders caused by aging. Meanwhile, the NeuroArtsBluePrint has provided critical funding for students and faculty members who are interested in research projects at the intersection of medicine and the arts. 

According to Fleming, music has the potential to mold the connection of the approximately 86 billion neurons in the human brain — offering a beacon of hope into both individual and community wellness. The benefits extend into mental and psychological health, an area that Santos and Allsop are all too familiar with.

Santos, who mentioned that she has known about Fleming and her work for a while, is also excited about the prospect of exploring music as a means of bolstering social connection, reinforcing mental health and reducing stress. 

“Laurie Santos has become such an important and influential figure in health and well-being in the country,” Fleming said. “She’s been such a bright light on the horizon for the intersection of health and well being and the way that we think about it now.”

The complete program for the 2023-24 Schwarzman Center season can be found here.